Ziggy’s Potato

Ziggy is a young boy who wishes upon the stars, as all children do. But when the Nazis rise to power, Ziggy, like so many other Jewish children, is taken to a concentration camp far from his home. There, Ziggy feels lost and alone, until a small potato reminds him of the hope and comfort he used to know and inspires his faith to persevere. Written and illustrated for ages 8 and up, the affecting and multilayered tale will touch readers of all ages.

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Read the Author’s Note | Read the Acknowledgements

What People Are Saying

“All of us — young and old alike — dream, sometimes great dreams, sometimes simple ones, Ziggy’s Potato is a simple story about a boy imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, whose great dream was so simple — not to be hungry and the potato he carried with him that offered hope that one day, someday, his stomach would not growl, his hunger satiated. He carried that potato even when he was later free to remind himself of the very great, simple dream he had.”

“I was moved by Ziggy’s story, so touched by his dream that I reached for a potato held it in my hand and cherished what I had so often taken for granted.”
— MICHAEL BERENBAUM, DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR OF JEWISH STUDIES, AMERICAN JEWISH UNIVERSITY, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 

“Hope and resilience, personified in 10-year-old Ziggy, infuse Sharon Sorokin’s Holocaust survivor’s tale. The rich illustrations and spare prose provide diverse points of entry. This text will promote age-appropriate courageous conversations for grades 3 through 12.”
— SUSAN S. SILVER ED.D., ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT, PENNSYLVANIA PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT, ADJUNCT PROFESSOR, ARCADIA UNIVERSITY, MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

About the Author

Sharon Sorokin writes stories and poems for children. In college, she studied with poets Richard Wilbur and Franklin D. Reeve.  She lives in an 18th century home in Haverford, Pennsylvania with her husband and a huge fluffy dog.   A lawyer by trade, Sharon is the founder and publisher of Bikabow Books.  When she isn’t writing, Sharon knocks around on the piano, plays the harp, and listens to koto music, a Japanese stringed instrument she learned while in college. Favorite activities include long walks with her dog, trading poems with friends, and cooking (especially potato pancakes, roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes, potato soup and pasta or rice with potatoes). She has lived in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont (for a few summers at music camp), Oregon and for seven patisserie-filled weeks, France.

About the Illustrator

Helen Cann is an award-winning illustrator, painter, mapmaker, and hand letterer. Not only has she illustrated over thirty books for children, but her work has been featured as props for film and television and appeared on the walls of galleries and museums around the world. She lives and works in her sunny seaside studio in Brighton in the south of England with her cat, Marvin. You can find out more about her work here.